Page 36 of Gray

West grabbed the secure line, calling his team of IT gurus. He was already barking out orders before Gray could process what was happening.

She’d be gone. Untraceable. And possibly in the hands of men even worse than Ivan.

Gray jumped up from the table so fast he knocked his chair over. “We have to get to Baltimore. It’s almost dawn.” His gaze swept over his teammates, landing on his boss. “I’m calling Boone. He lives in DC and can get there quickly.”

Jett nodded his approval. “Bring him in. I’ve got some old buddies stationed at Joint Base Andrews that could meet us there as well. I’ll arrange for a helo to transport the team. Pack up your gear.”

“It’s well over an hour flight time. Boone will get there before us,” Gray said.

Jett hadn’t brought on anyone new yet because the team functioned so seamlessly together. A new man could throw things off balance—or shift things in their favor.

Jett’s eyes met his. “Then he’ll have a head start.”

Twenty minutes later, the men were climbing onboard a helo. Jett had a helicopter pilot at the ready in his vast arsenal of contacts. While the men typically flew commercial flights, they did what they had to do when shit hit the fan. Boarding a private helo wasn’t exactly out of the norm. It wasn’t a military aircraft, but it would get them there quickly just the same.

Gray adjusted his Kevlar vest, wincing slightly. Hell if his scars didn’t feel tight and itchy right now. Stress sometimes made his nerve endings flare up, his entire body feeling over-sensitized.Prickly. He’d do anything to get to Lena though. Bear any burden. This was nothing compared to the hell she was living.

He swiped the screen and lifted his phone to his ear. “You still in DC?” he asked as Boone answered.

The crack of the cue ball sounded in the background, and Gray heard low conversations and music playing. The sound of drinks being poured. “Roger that. Is something wrong? You don’t usually call me at three a.m.”

Gray didn’t even ask why his buddy was out at this hour. “Lena was kidnapped. We’ve traced her to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.”

“Whoa,” Boone said, the noise getting quieter. Gray heard a door open, and then Boone must’ve stepped outside into the night. “She’s the woman you mentioned before? And of course I remember that, because you never mention anyone.”

“It’s her,” Gray confirmed. “She was kidnapped by the head of a large sex-trafficking ring. We have a location and are staging a rescue op. There are multiple men involved, her kidnapping part of a massive operation. I need a favor.”

“Anything.”

“We need another sniper.”

Chapter 20

The vehicle came to an abrupt stop, Lena nearly falling forward and smacking her head on the seat in front of her. They’d gagged her again after she screamed, two big men sitting on either side of her as they rode toward a loading area of a huge terminal. A massive crane was lifting another container onto the ship, but there weren’t any other workers in the area they’d parked. It was secluded. Hidden. And she whimpered in fear as they pulled forward again and she saw a huge metal container forty yards away.

The final cargo was being loaded right now, and she was about to be locked away in a metal box and lifted onto a ship. Gray would never find her.

One of the men sprayed a marking on the side of the container with a can of spray paint, and she wanted to vomit. They were tagging it. Marking her location. She was being sent God knows where, and someone evil on the other end of the line would have her in their clutches.

Noise from the shipyard could be heard around them, but there was no one to see these men herding her into the steel container.

Ivan had long since disappeared, leaving his men to do his bidding. Tears streamed down her cheeks as her frantic gaze scanned the area. She saw other maintenance trucks coming and going from a distance, but no one noticed her. It was too dark, and they were too far away.

Tearfully, she spotted a security camera on the door of a small building. Sniffling, Lena looked right at it, almost willing someone to find her. Help her. Save her from this hell.

“Let’s move,” one of the men said. She stumbled, and he hefted her over his shoulder, laughing. Her dress was dirty and torn, her hair a mess, and she had scratches on her skin from stumbling around earlier. Now she was dangling over this guy’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Pity the boss didn’t want to let us give you a proper goodbye,” the man said, smacking her ass and then squeezing it. Lena’s stomach roiled, and then he was walking right into the dark metal container, moving through a maze of boxes.

Another man held a flashlight, guiding their way, and she began to think she might vomit right into her gag.

The guy carrying her unceremoniously dumped her on the hard metal floor, lifting her arms forward. He secured handcuffs around her wrists, right over the zip ties, and locked her to a heavy metal chain in the back. She was locked in place before she could move, shock setting in. They’d done this before. Shipped people. Sold women.

The guy with the flashlight sneered. “You would’ve done good on the auction block. Plenty of men would’ve paid for night after night with a woman like you. Guess the boss got an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

The men turned, walking away, and leaving her there without so much as a backward glance. “We should hit up the hotel in Tijuana for our next assignment. I could use some fresh pussy. If you work extra shifts down there, sometimes you get to sample the goods for free.”

“Fuck yeah,” the other guy chuckled, their voices getting quieter. “I wouldn’t mind seeing how many bitches I could tap in one night.”

The light disappeared along with her captors, leaving her in the dark. A metal door slammed shut, the final nail in her coffin.Lena tried to shift positions, but she could barely move. She was literally shackled against the metal wall, cold, scared, and helpless. And the worst of it all? Gray would never find her. Never. She’d rather die than be a sex slave to some monster, but she had absolutely no choice in the matter.

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